


Like Fire, Like Water, Like Air

by cadkitten



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Romance, Separations, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-09
Updated: 2014-11-09
Packaged: 2018-02-24 16:07:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2587586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cadkitten/pseuds/cadkitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko has always found things to be darker in his life than he ever really intended. But Katara somehow lightens things for him in a variety of ways. She is the light of his life and he needs to have her, even if just for tonight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Fire, Like Water, Like Air

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HyugaBlood88](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=HyugaBlood88).



> Song: "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias

The evening air was slightly warm, a damp quality to it that reminded Zuko of the first evening he had ever run across Katara alone. She had been sitting outside, under the rustling leaves of one of Zuko's favorite go-to trees; one of the ones that he found let him completely relax and take in the much needed breaths of fresh air that cleared his mind.

He closed his eyes and reflected on what had drawn him to her, why he's gone to sit under the tree with her and just settle there, completely silent for a long time. It took hours until they managed to get to a point where he finally spoke. But once he started, found he couldn't stop talking to her. She was really easy to just vent to, to confide some of his worst and dirtiest secrets to while she simply sat there, unfailingly silent and unjudging. For months he returned on the same day each week to be around her, pleased to be around someone who seemed to somewhat respect that he was, after all, a human being with emotions the same as all ones. 

Opening his eyes once again, he found himself back in the present, his mind alert to his surroundings. Stepping out from under the eve of his home, he made his way through the streets, cloak swishing behind him as he moved. The baker moved past him with his cart, the gentle clack of the wheels over cobblestone nearly soothing in the otherwise still morning. He turned off the main street and headed toward the orchard where he and Katara had been meeting. It was the last time he'd probably have this chance and that thought struck him as one he'd rather not have right then. He frowned as he moved along, the wind picking up as he maneuvered through the street.

By the time he arrived at the tree, the wind was howling, a storm moving in that he knew even the best of the benders couldn't prevent. Beneath the tree stood Katara, a pale blue cloak drawn around her, though she looked cold and perhaps paler than usual. Without hesitation, he stepped up to her, sliding his arm around her shoulders and turning her to guide her back into the town. They didn't speak, words unnecessary. And even if they had been, they wouldn't have heard one another over the sound of the storm. The last seventy yards found them pelted by rain as they dashed across the expanse of the dirt lane.

Zuko yanked open his door and nearly dragged Katara inside, the door slamming behind them. He took his chances in that moment, feeling like he'd never find a better, more impulsive, time to do as he'd dreamed of night after night. He rounded on her in an instant, his hand sliding up into her hair as he drew her into his embrace. An instant later, his lips found hers, his eyelids falling closed as she began to respond. His heart slammed against his ribcage and his stomach tightened in those few instants they were connected, until she was pushing him back and he was stumbling toward the hearth, unwilling to keep his hold on her if she was pushing him away.

Stunned, he grasped the shelf over the fireplace with one hand, dragging the back of his hand across his lips. "I've wanted to-"

She cut him off with one raised hand and shook her head. "You know I'm leaving tonight. Why are you doing this now?" Her face turned furious. "Why now and not before?!"

Ashamed, he bowed his head and slumped down onto the jutting-edge of the hearth. "I didn't know how to express what I felt in the right sort of way... the moment wasn't ever there."

"Liar." She crossed her arms over her chest. "You've had every chance in the book. I know your secrets, your desires, and yet you couldn't slip this one in there?"

His own gaze turned to fire, his eyes narrowing as he raised his head to meet her eyes. "This is different and you know it. It's one thing to tell someone your darkness, the messed up portions of your life, and the missed opportunities. But it's another to tell them when the flames are so fresh."

Some of her anger died in those moments. It was if he could watch it physically extinguish. Her shoulders slowly relaxed, her stance taking on a different air. "Zuko, I-"

"Don't," he murmured quietly. "I don't want confessions and I don't really want anything in return if we can't have it for any length of time. I just needed to do what I did." His own rage seemed quelled by her ability to back off of what she'd been feeling, and he seemed nearly vulnerable in those moments.

Katara raised her chin, her usual confidence returning. "One night then."

Nothing in the world could have kept Zuko from her in the following moments. The whirlwind between the main room and the bedroom had nothing to do with the storm brewing outside. By the time they fell onto the bed, Katara had taken the lead, leaving Zuko caught in her tidal wave. Even as her naked flesh came into contact with his own, he found himself disbelieving that it was happening. The first spark of the moment he began to believe was the same instant her velvet heat slid down over his aching length. 

With a shudder and a cry, he pushed up into her, again and again. Her hand braced against the bed, the other buried deep in his hair as she moved above him. Their hips rolled in polar opposition, each dip and sweep of their bodies bringing new found pleasure. And it was the instant that she took his hand and pressed it to her throat that he found he was hopelessly lost in her. Even though she was using his dirty secrets against him, he found himself not really minding that much. He spread his legs and slammed up into her, his fingers tightening on her flesh, dark eyes flashing with the heat of his desire. 

Without warning, heat rushed through him and in an instant, his hips were jerking as he emptied himself within her, unable to stop it any more than he could have controlled his fingers in those moments as they tightened even more on her precious neck. Her hand clamped over his and she pressed at just the right place, forcing his hand to open up as she kept moving over him, slamming herself down on his throbbing cock again and again, until she was screaming with her own end. 

Moments passed them by as they simply lay there, panting and coming down from what had just happened. Even as they rolled apart from one another, Zuko closing his eyes, Katara reached to grasp his hand in her own. Her fingers pressed lightly and then escaped as she slid from his bed. She paused in the doorway, staring back at him for a few moments. "Find me one day. Come after me when the time is right."

And just like that, she was gone, a whisper on the wind and nothing more. The thunder rolled and the sky lit up just beyond his curtained window and Zuko allowed himself to slide away into a world where he had her in his arms, where the right time was now and forever was a truth. A smile slid over his lips as he let that world claim him. One day the time would become right and one day he'd go after her.


End file.
